Gilbert & Sullivan: Framed Pair of 19th C. Vanity Fair Portraits by Sir Leslie Ward, 1874 & 1881

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This is a pair of Vanity Fair color chromolithograph caricatures of the famous and beloved English musical composers and playwrights … Read more This is a pair of Vanity Fair color chromolithograph caricatures of the famous and beloved English musical composers and playwrights Gilbert and Sullivan by Sir Leslie Ward (Spy) (1851-1922) and Carlo Pellegini (Ape) (1839-1889). The portrait of Arthur Sullivan entitled "English Music" was published in Vanity Fair on March 14, 1874 and W. S. Gilbert entitled "Patience" was published in the Men of the Day portion of Vanity Fair on May 21, 1881.

These Vanity Fair portraits of Gilbert and Sullivan are presented in identical ornate black wood frames and cream-colored French mats with grey inner mats. The frames each measure 21.75" x 16" x .88". The frames and prints are in excellent condition.

From 1868 until February 5, 1914, Vanity Fair, a weekly magazine of social, literary and political content, was very popular in Victorian and later, Edwardian England. The most popular of its features were the full page caricatures of famous men and women of the day which included their biographies, which remains the magazines lasting legacy. Vanity Fair's most famous artists were Carlo Pellegrini who signed his works “Ape” and Leslie Ward, known as “Spy”, but many other artists and writers contributed caricatures and prose to the publication, including Lewis Carroll, Willie Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Jessie Pope and Bertram Fletcher Robinson.

Thomas Gibson Bowles was the founder, owner, and editor of the magazine until 1889. He described the images as "grim faces made more grim, grotesque figures made more grotesque, and dull people made duller by the genius of our talented collaborator 'Ape'; but there is nothing that has been treated with a set purpose to make it something that it was not already originally in a lesser degree." See less